ETCR - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft in DD3

[Wannabehero]

Sweet Jumping Jimminy, this is quite a project you've taken yourself too, I am duly impressed. I'm glad you're using a program like CC to do it, otherwise I can't even imagine how much work it would be.

I had a very similar inclination to do something like this after I bought the Expedition to Undermountain book, then wisely said "That's crazy".

You're maps are very good, and even more importantly, useful! Repped all the way.

[Steel General]

Nicely done!

[Shindig]

I am very glad that people will find this material useful.

The main reason I did this was that I knew that I would be running the campaign soon and wanted a good representation to bring up on the computer tabletop. At the same time, I had a chance to get to know every square inch of the castle and match it up with all of the descriptions that are given in the text. TSR and WOTC were/are notorious for not matching up their art/maps/descriptions and I wanted to be sure that I didn’t get caught in an inconsistency.

As I got deeper into the project I was very thankful I did this. I soon found that each version of the module had its own set of errors, yet the most accurate always seemed to be the original. Usually, it just amounted to looking at the other two renditions of the castle, finding which one was the odd one and siding with the other two (this was not always the case, though). Sometimes this would be something small, like, “Does the entrance to the stairs appear ahead, left or right?” The 2nd ed. Version wanted to mash the south stairwells into the same area, somehow. The players in my group are very seasoned and will definitely narrow in on these inconsistencies so I had to be sure that I was finding them beforehand and prepared for this, which meant I needed to go over all of the maps and descriptions thoroughly. I am certain that I still have missed things, but I am much better off than I was before I started.

I also want to point out that 6 or 7 years back I had a most unusual guest at one of my games. One of my former players, Dani, had mentioned that one of the customers to whom she delivered pizza used to be involved with D&D and was terminally ill. She wanted to invite him over to sit in on a game, figuring that he would enjoy it. I agreed. He showed up that week and it turned out to be none other than David Sutherland III, the artist that did the original orthogonal castle map and artwork for the original module and the Ravenloft campaign setting. It was a memorable evening and he left us quite a few nice prints of his work. Sadly, he passed on a few months later.

I wish I had done this project before I had met him. I would have thanked him for being so much more attentive to detail than those that worked on the maps after him. He was quite thorough. Part of this project is in homage to him and his attention to detail. I only hope I have done it justice.

In keeping with that notion, if anyone does see an oversight, PLEASE TELL ME. Not that I will correct it right away, but I will keep a list of errata so that when I do go to make corrections, I will have it to go by.

I do own the Expedition to Undermountain book, but I don’t see myself running it anytime soon and I need to stick to things that I want to run at the table.

I am considering doing other projects next. The one that I have been eyeing up the most is the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk merged with the Expedition to Castle Greyhawk campaign. This is much more problematic, though, then Ravenloft. The main reason is that the two modules have the castle in different timeframes, so that rooms that are shown in both have far more differences than did the ones in the Ravenloft project. Also, the latter campaign refers to the unmapped portions as having to fallen to ruin rather than maintaining their earlier appearance, and much less inhabited.

I am working on finding a way to merge the differences in such a way that the entire undercastle can be explored with ready made maps. Considering the scope of t project, this will not be anytime soon.

The other project I am considering is reconstructing the maps for the Scourge of the Slavelords campaign. That seems a little more reasonable for a short term goal while I pick away at the castle. I guess that I am nostalgic for old school material.

Moving on to more posts...

[Shindig]

Here are some of the areas outside of the castle itself, redone from the ‘sepia’ maps to something more usable.

I did put together a map for the town, but it is a bit large for posting and does not fill in areas other than the road, so I am not going to post it here. It was just a quick and easy map to walk the players through the town and allow them to make choices as far as direction. I did not redo the maps supplied for the street encounters as editing out the creature markers from the ETCR maps worked well enough. I did make some maps of the random areas, as well as the church, and am posting these below. These are just to replace the ‘sepia’ versions from the book and are nothing too intricate.

The following areas replace the sepia versions of the outlying areas. This brings us up to speed to where my campaign is actually at. I will be working on the Fanes next.

When I began these, I was feeling fairly confident with the program after completing the castle. I thought, sure, this is outside whereas before I had the comfort of working with a nice angular building, but it can’t be that different. I was wrong. I had to start learning completely different techniques to get the job done, so the first couple I consider learning projects. Also, I purposely did not include grids on these since they were imported to Maptool. It is MUCH easier to forego the grid at first, since they are needed in Maptool and it is annoying having to line up both grids to avoid the ‘double-lined’ effect.

Crossroads was the first. I thought that the path would be too abrupt on the edges so I added dirt and field grass along the side. I found out later that this was unnecessary as the program automatically fades in the path edge, as you can see in the second drawing, Vistani Camp. I don’t think that there was a skeleton on the gallows in the book, but I didn’t have another ‘gallows’ to choose from and it fit the ambiance of the campaign.

Vistani camp came off to much like a circus camp for me, but I was in a crunch and needed to get it done. It was my first attempt at creating a river.

I do like the way the Nymph Pool came out, though. The one thing I like the most about Campaign Cartographer is that vegetation comes out fantastic looking. It is the one aspect about overland mapping that I don’t have to work at too much, it seems like the program does enough on its own. I just have to turn the trees/plants a bit if I use the same template more than once.

[jtougas]

I am considering doing other projects next. The one that I have been eyeing up the most is the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk merged with the Expedition to Castle Greyhawk campaign. This is much more problematic, though, then Ravenloft. The main reason is that the two modules have the castle in different timeframes, so that rooms that are shown in both have far more differences than did the ones in the Ravenloft project. Also, the latter campaign refers to the unmapped portions as having to fallen to ruin rather than maintaining their earlier appearance, and much less inhabited.

That would be an amazing project. It's pretty well known around here that I am a huge fan of anything Greyhawk and would love to see the Castle done in this style

[Shindig]

That would be an amazing project. It's pretty well known around here that I am a huge fan of anything Greyhawk and would love to see the Castle done in this style

When I begin putting together an attack plan for it, I will open another thread and be sure to let you know in this thread. I am leaning towards it, I just have to read through them again and see if it is feasable.

[danielpryor]

The maps will be restored later on this month on my new site! It will launch around the same time the new MapForge software comes out!

[Shindig]

Thank you. I must say, though, that I like your version of the drawbridge better. I captures the feeling of being on a high cliff better than what I did.

We are currently in the middle of the campaign and I have found a few errors. They have come in on the first basement and things are playing out nicely! I am missing the secret room off of the north room and I have a desk in the kitchen which should be a cabinet. Ah, well...

[danielpryor]

Thank you. I must say, though, that I like your version of the drawbridge better. I captures the feeling of being on a high cliff better than what I did.

We are currently in the middle of the campaign and I have found a few errors. They have come in on the first basement and things are playing out nicely! I am missing the secret room off of the north room and I have a desk in the kitchen which should be a cabinet. Ah, well...

Thank you for the compliment, but I think you did a great job as well, we just have different styles. After seeing your stuff and my old stuff and switching software from DJ & PSP7 to DD3/CC3 and GIMP I decided to redo most or all of them. I am in the process though of learning the new software so it's going to take me awhile.

Keep up the good work, your stuff is great!

[Molbork]

Great maps! My group has just entered the keep and were looking for some nice maps, but as a smart guy, but not a graphics guy I was wondering how would one go about printing these out? Do they print as 1 inch squares?

This may end up as the nerdiest trip to Kinkos I've ever had and I had to get $6000 worth of physics lab manuals printed for my university one year lol

Any advice would be great!